This invention relates generally to exercise and rehabilitation equipment and, more particularly, to a chair having multiple pivot points corresponding generally to a person's joints for low-resistance, high-repetition exercise and rehabilitation and the methods of chair operation and rehabilitation exercise.
Elderly and disabled persons, persons confined to a small apartment or room, and persons recovering from injury, illness, or surgery frequently experience increased weakness and lack of steadiness and mobility. Lack of activity due to arthritis pains, senile dementia, and the like may also result in decreased strength end endurance. This weakening process may become a permanent physical limitation, result in falls, or require medical intervention, prolonged physical therapy, or living assistance.
Various exercise devices are known in the art for increasing muscle strength and aerobic endurance. Although assumably effective for their intended purposes, the existing devices may result in muscle soreness and joint pain as well as being difficult for the elderly or disabled to operate.
Therefore, it is desirable to have an exercise and rehabilitation chair having multiple pivot points that operate a user's joints using low-resistance and high repetition movements, without the user's body weight being applied to the joints, as is obvious by the user's sitting position. Further, it is desirable to have an exercise and rehabilitation chair in which resistance may be regulated by adjusting the vertical position of the fulcrum about which the seat assembly pivots. It is also desirable to have an exercise and rehabilitation chair in which the fulcrum may alternatively be adjusted using electrically actuated gear assemblies.